There is a maxim that four quarts of clean oil mixed with one quart of dirty oil makes five quarts of dirty oil. In the area of fluid filtering apparatus and related filtering applications, this is especially true. Modern vehicles and industrial machinery rely on a number of re-circulating fluids for effective operation. Effective filtration of these fluids can extend the life of the apparatus and maintain the operation at high levels of performance. Furthermore, to the extent fluids can be maintained free of contamination, the life of the fluid itself is extended, saving cost due to fluid replacement and machinery downtime.
One particularly effective type of fluid filter causes fluids to flow interstitially between layers of fibrous tissue established around an inner core such as a filtered fluid conduit. Such fluid filters may be packaged either as disposable canisters, replaceable cartridges, or as containers; filters may include generally two, four, six or eight (etc.) filter media rolls around a filtered fluid conduit. Typically, one or more units may be found in a filter; a unit has two rolls, one above the other, separated by a fluid collector. When more than one unit is used, units may be stacked atop each other, each separated by a seal. The top of the upper unit and the bottom of the lower unit may have an upper end cap and lower end cap, respectively, where the upper end cap may block from into or out of a central filtered fluid conduit and the lower end cap may allow fluid out of that central filtered fluid conduit (and then out of the entire filter through a filtered fluid outlet port). In-flow and out-flow connections provide the filter's inlet and outlet ports. By pressuredly flowing “dirty” fluid interstitially between the layers of filtering tissues, dirt, particles and/or and smudge is removed from the fluid by the tissue layers. Generally, fluid may exit the filter rolls, then is directed in part by a filtered fluid collector towards a filtered fluid conduit which, once inside, is delivered by the conduit to a filtered fluid outlet port.
Although convention models—including those utilizing anti-channeling technologies as discussed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,270,668, hereby incorporated herein by reference—are quite effective in filtering fluids, there is certainly some room for improvement. Particular embodiments of the inventive technology may improve filter efficiency by enabling a greater throughput per time at a given operative pressure as compared with conventional technologies. Such improvement may result from provision of at least one filtered fluid channel running alongside the filtered fluid conduit and of a greater number of holes established along the length of the conduit, such holes allowing for passage of filtered fluid from the channel(s) to the filtered fluid conduit and thereafter out of the filter. Additional aspects of attributable to the inventive technology—particularly the provision of snap on end caps, conduit length cut guides that enable cutting of different lengths of conduit from the same conduit stock, and holes that “double” as filtered fluid passages and end cap engagement sites—may result in improved and more cost-effective manufacturing. Of course, other advantages and goals of the inventive technology may be disclosed elsewhere in this specification.